


Histories, Realities

by Jen425



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers in Space, Tokusatsu
Genre: Angst, Brother-Sister Relationships, Complicated Relationships, Gen, Happy Ending, Parallels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 16:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20915093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: Andros and Karone, together and apart





	Histories, Realities

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rivulet027](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027/gifts).

> This has a weird style shift in the middle, but I still love how it turned out

It was never fate, never something that should have happened. Karone should have been a hero from the start.

Or, at least, that’s how Andros sees it.

For a long time, Andros will call it a trick of fate, incorrect. Karone was supposed to be his Pink, that was why Dorra’s Pink never found a successor.

He replayed and digitized his memory of the day Karone disappeared until the simulation looked as real as a video taken by hand, and then he replayed it some more.

Karone. His twin sister.

He can see her so clearly in his head, and he _ knows _ that, somehow, he’ll get her back.

  
  


There is no beginning except that the Rangers killed her family and she was taken by the enemy of her enemies.

(There is no final piece to that sentence, not with monsters and villains surrounding her.)

She doesn’t even remember her own name.

But that doesn’t matter because this _ is _ her purpose. The weakling human whose intelligence and skill have risen her from perhaps a lieutenant to Dark Spectre’s heir in all but name.

She will not appear weak, and so she allows her memories of her family to fade.

(Her brother had striped blonde hair and wears red in his photo, and that tiny memento is all she allows herself to remember.)

  
  


KO-35 falls, and Andros watches his team fall until all that is left is Zhane.

(And then he loses Zhane, too.)

He’s fifteen. He’s alone on the Astro Megaship.

It’s then that he finally realizes that he has nothing left.

Except for the war with Dark Spectre’s alliance. And so… he fights.

Rangers aren’t meant to fight alone, certainly not a Core like him. But he adapts, and he excels. He becomes more spy than out-and-out fighter, but he is _ good _ at it.

And then he goes… not home. He returns to his base.

(Sometimes, less and less, he sits beside Zhane and talks to someone who may never reply.)

(Sometimes, more and more, he plays the video of Karone’s disappearance.)

(Never does he let himself be hopeful.)

  
  


Muzikli falls, and Astronema finds her name in a parody of their doomsday god.

She’s 14, and this is her first lone assault, even if it’s on such a weak planet. It took all of a day.

“Ecliptor?” She asks. “Record these people’s cries. They’re… beautiful.”

Ecliptor nods.

“Of course, Princess,” he says.

And Astronema smiles, because she had fought so hard to get even here.

But she will rise to the top.

(Sh looks at the news of KO-35’s fall and wonders why her thoughts go straight to the boy with striped hair, in her locket.)

  
  


Andros doesn’t know what’s going down with the Alliance of Evil, but he knows it’s big, and he knows it’s dangerous.

And he knows it has to do with the defeat on Eltar, last month.

And so, for those reasons, he pulls a loose maroon cloak over his head and takes his unmarked ship close enough to the meeting to teleport down, without incident.

As he watches the villains talk, he can’t help but marvel about how petty they are. How they’ve conquered worlds would be beyond him, if he himself hadn’t lived through his planet’s destruction.

(The real surprise is yet to come, with four stranger Earthians aboard his ship.)

  
  


Astronema knows _ exactly _ what’s going down with the Alliance of Evil, probably because she’s right in the middle of it, having been one of four generals to take Eltar, even temporarily, and kidnap the great _ hero, _ Zordon.

When she was younger, events like these excited her, meeting all these great lords, emperors, and general conquerors.

Now they just seem like squabbling children, more child than she can ever remember being.

And then she sees the morpher on the being in the dark red cloak.

(She’ll see a lot more of him, soon.)

  
  


His team finds out about Karone, through Carlos.

(And of course it’s Carlos; these Earthians may have seemed incompetent, but they’re good Rangers, and they’re… quickly becoming his friends.)

They don’t let him go out solo, anymore, but… it’s nice to have people who know without him having to explain, even if they don’t realize his memory video is just complex holotech.

Still, though. After years of searching, with no clues towards success, the clues just keep piling up so quickly, in between fighting Astronema and befriending his team and even getting Zhane back!

And then…

Her locket.

Astronema’s locket.

“You’re my sister,” Andros says, and it may be the most surprising thing that he had ever blurted out.

  
  


Ecliptor doesn’t lie to her, when she discovers the truth, but of course he doesn’t. Despite being made of evil, Astronema always knew he cared for her.

He doesn’t even fault her, _ helps _ her, when she leaves, goes with the Red Ranger, with Andros, with her _ brother _, who is still alive, even if their parents might not be.

But…

Everyone calls her Karone, and it grates on her skin like it definitely shouldn’t. She wears their Purple Ranger uniform and pretends not to suffocate.

Dressing up, back in familiar black leather and a crimson wig, is… nice.

Until it isn’t.

  
  


Fighting Astronema is harder than ever, now, but Andros refuses to stop,to stop trying to save the universe, to stop trying to save _ her _.

Even into the final battle, he refuses to stop.

“I have to try,” he tells Ashley, when the beautiful Yellow catches him sneaking away.

And he does. But…

It’s a battle, a final battle at that, so why is he so surprised when her attack rebounds on her, when she goes down? When he kills… Karone.

(And then Zordon, too.)

But somehow he gets one last miracle, and Karone returns.

  
  


Astronema— _ Karone _ tries hard to be the person Andros expects her to be. The lost twin sister. The girl who has never conquered worlds or murdered people over as little as a mispronounced name.

The bubbly personality doesn’t particularly come naturally to her, but somehow no one even questions it.

Andros, in particular, has a habit of ignoring any reference made to her time as Astronema, if it’s anything less than tragic for her.

(Instead of tragic for others, for all of the people she’d hurt.)

What Andros doesn’t know is that not all of her old allies died or fully reformed with the Z-wave. What he knows even less is that they still send information to Astronema.

And so Karone heads off, on her own, to protect the Pink Quasar Saber.

(She says she does it for some form of redemption, or to help ease Cassie’s guilt, and she does, but… it’s really just a sefish excuse to leave.)

  
  


Andros is more shocked that he can put into words, more _ angry _ than he can put into words, when he finds out about Karone’s kidnapping, this time by the Galactic Council. He gets there in a day, on the Astro Megaship Mark II, having brought the only two of her teammates that could get away, to help her.

Andros already knows that they’ll probably fail. The universe is looking for a scapegoat.

But Karone is _ not _ Astronema.

It’s easy to put together the hard light hologram, using the same technology the runaways had used, back at the height of Andros’ Ranger activity.

He just doesn’t understand why Karone is angry at him.

  
  


Karone avoids Andros entirely, after that. For over a year, she avoids and even ignored her brother.

(She knows he sends Zhane and Cassie to check on her, but she ignores that part.)

She goes where she’s needed, not always where she’s wanted. Visits Earth every now and then. They’ve got a nice collection of former villains turned allies, and they’re… nice to get to know.

And, of course, she drops in on Mirinoi.

(Visits KO-35, too. Often enough for people to know her. Not often enough to call it home, but neither is Mirinoi or Earth. She doesn’t think she’s had a home since she was five years old and taken away by Darkonda.)

And then she finds him on Zylaer. Captured, by… oh hells those are Evoror’s forces. The wannabe conqueror who’d been denied entrance into the Alliance and therefore escaped the Z-Wave.

Well, he won’t be difficult to fool.

  
  


“Oh congratulations,” says a familiar voice, and Andros jerks his head in surprise. Is that…

“I almost feel bad for calling you a loser,” Astronema continues. There’s a slight smirk on her face, and her wig is pure white.

Evoror also turns, and he growls at the sight of the Queen of Evil.

“I thought you were killed,” he says. “Twice.”

Astronema merely scoffs, walking forwards with surety and grace. It’s terrifying to see, because Karone had… hesitated, from the moment Andros had told her and realized the truth.

“No weak wave of goodness or weaker family bond could hold me,” she says. “That’s why I separated from the little Pink. And you should learn not to listen to rumors. Now… give me the Red Ranger. He’s mine.”

…What?

Evoror smirks.

“I don’t think I will,” he says.

And he strikes.

  
  


Astronema could easily strike faster than Evoror. That said, Karone isn’t Astronema.

_ That _ said, she still has every bit of skill she was trained with. And it’s been a long time since she’s let herself unleash it. Evoror’s sliced-apart body doesn’t even explode; she was too quick and methodical.

And then she dissipates her illusioned form, slicing through Andros’s cuffs before dissipating her wraith staff, too.

“Are you okay?” She asks. Andros nods.

“You…”

“Like I told you,” Karone says. “Astronema is me. It just… helps more than I told you.”

Oh.

“Do you… do you need a ride?” Andros asks. Karone blinks.

“What?” She asks. Andros sighs.

“I think…” he says. “I think we need to talk.”

  
  


“So talk,” Karone says, arms crossed as she lounges in one of the Mark II’s copilot seats. Andros sighs.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I wanted the concept of my sister so much that I refused to see who she was… who _ you _ were.”

Karone looks at him.

“Astronema is a part of me,” she says. “That’s not going to change, and… and I’ve accepted that.”

The unspoken “do you?” hangs in the air for several minutes, as Andros tries to form a response.

“I want to get to know my sister for real,” Andros says, at last. “And… that includes Astronema.”

Finally, Karone smiles.

“Then I guess we’ll both try,” she says. “It’s the most we can do.”

  
  


Karone is honestly astonished to find how much Andros does try, after that. It’s not perfect, but he doesn’t flinch whe she talks about her past.

He doesn’t even blink, whenever word of Astronema reaches him, just messages if things seem dangerous.

And Karone realizes that… they aren’t as different as she thought.

She’d forgotten that Andros had been more spy than hero, before their fight. And…

Well, it works. And that’s the most they can do.

And it’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
